I develop methods for digital data, focused on developing societies.
My work has been featured by NPR and the World Bank.

Assistant Professor of Economics, Brown University

Curriculum Vitae
dan[@]bjorkegren[.]com   Office: Robinson Hall 303D   Office Hours    


Network Effects
The Adoption of Network Goods: Evidence from the Spread of Mobile Phones in Rwanda
Review of Economic Studies (2019) Slides | Supplemental Appendix
Competition in Network Industries: Evidence from the Rwandan Mobile Phone Network
RAND Journal of Economics (2022) Slides | Supplemental Appendix
Network Adoption Subsidies: A Digital Evaluation of a Rural Mobile Phone Program in Rwanda
with Burak Ceyhun Karaca
Journal of Development Economics (2022)
To Regulate Network-Based Platforms, Look at Their Data
with Chiara Farronato
Harvard Business Review (2021), website
Machine Learning
Manipulation Proof Machine Learning
with Joshua Blumenstock and Samsun Knight
Revised and resubmitted, Econometrica Video (30m) | How do you say algorithm in Kiswahili?
Causal Inference from Hypothetical Evaluations
with B. Douglas Bernheim, Jeffrey Naecker, and Michael Pollmann
Video (2m) | R package
(Machine) Learning what Policies Value
with Samsun Knight and Joshua Blumenstock
Submitted. Presented at ACM EAAMO (2021) and NeurIPS Workshop on Machine Learning for the Developing World (2019)
Balancing Competing Objectives with Noisy Data: Score-Based Classifiers for Welfare-Aware Machine Learning
with Esther Rolf, Max Simchowitz, Sarah Dean, Lydia Liu, Moritz Hardt, and Joshua Blumenstock
International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) (2020)
Workshop paper presented at NeurIPS Joint Workshop on AI for Social Good (2019). Best Paper Award
Digital Credit
Behavior Revealed in Mobile Phone Usage Predicts Credit Repayment
with Darrell Grissen
World Bank Economic Review (2020) Original Proposal (posted 2010)
Media (2015): NPR Morning Edition, The World Bank (syndicated to World Economic Forum), New Scientist, Radio New Zealand
The Potential of Digital Credit to Bank the Poor
with Darrell Grissen
American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings (2018)
Instant Loans Can Lift Subjective Well-Being: A Randomized Evaluation of Digital Credit in Nigeria
with Joshua Blumenstock, Omowunmi Folajimi-Senjobi, Jacqueline Mauro, and Suraj Nair
Submitted Pre-Analysis Plan
Nonparametric Causal Estimators for Multivariate Missing Data: An Application to Estimate Treatment Effects from Digital Trace Data
with Joshua Blumenstock and Jacqueline Mauro
Big Data for Development
Assessing Bias in Smartphone Mobility Estimates in Low Income Countries
with Sveta Milusheva and Leonardo Viotti
ACM Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS) (2021) Blog Post
Measuring Informal Work with Digital Traces: Mobile Payphone Operators in Rwanda
International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) (2020)
In Progress
Welfare-Sensitive Machine Learning
with Joshua Blumenstock
Efficiency of Informal Transit Networks
with Alice Duhaut, Geetika Nagpal, and Nick Tsivanidis
The Value and Spread of Information: Evidence from a Mobile Phone Discount
Other Papers
Nostalgic Demand
Inferring Missing Cell Tower Locations using Call Handoffs (2014)
Products
Microsoft Pictures App for Microsoft's first smartphones (2001)